I bought a new acoustic guitar that just came in today via FedEx. Its the Hudson Dreadnaught by a relatively new company called "Orangewood". The whole thing with a hardshell case and free shipping was $650. My thoughts about the guitar are as follows:

1) The Hudson is one of their "high end" guitars that were released quite recently. It is made with a solid spruce "torrified" top and mahogany back and sides. It played and sounded fantastic right out of the box (except obvious tuning that needed to be done).

2) This guitar sounds almost (but not quite) as good as my Martin 000-28, which I paid $1600 for, and now sells for about $3000 new. The Hudson, with its similarly thin neck feels really comfortable. And it plays consistently in tune up and down the fret board. I haven't touched a guitar in almost 3 years now. but even with all my rust this guitar is a pleasure to play. Licks that I haven't played in years started to come back to me. I think thats what a good instrument does. It responds to the musician and communicates well what the musician has in mind. It didn't feel like wrestling. If felt more like a conversation that was so easy that it minimized my "stuttering".

3) Orangewood specializes in low end "beginners" guitars. But unlike most beginner models, By every review, they are legit quality. This company is now my goto suggestion for anyone who is trying to learn guitar, or who needs a quality guitar and doesn't want to spend thousands of dollars for one.

4) This guitar doesn't respond as well to hard strumming. (This most definitely is not a Martin HD28. In that sense it is similar to my Martin 000-28 which is a smaller bodied guitar. Both guitars definitely have a "sweet spot" when it comes to strumming tone. But in my mind, this is actually a good thing as it forces the guitarist to nuance their strumming with finesse instead of power. This is also what makes it so amenable to fingerstyles.

Bottom line: this is a great guitar. If you have $4000, go get a Martin or a Taylor or a Huss & Dalton (which are FANTASTIC btw). But if you don't want to spend that, then get an Orangewood. And don't bother buying another guitar until you raise the requisite $3000 to buy something better. You can find better guitars between these price points, but why bother. The Orangewood will serve your needs just fine until then.

These guitars are setup in Cali, but I saw numerous posts about customers having to adjust the truss rod at arrival. I took my Hudson to ActionMusic here in Falls Church, VA for a setup to be safe. When the owner opened the hard shell he stepped back like “what is this?” and immediately started strumming. Long story short, he tested it for about 10 mins. When he came back he said there is nothing he could do to this guitar because it’s setup perfectly and sounds great. His main concern with the guitar being made overseas was the quality and positioning of the nut. His final words, “you found a great guitar”

I’m in love with this guitar. Plays and sounds beautifully, acoustically and plugged in.

Hello,I wanted to take a minute and give you my opinion of my recent purchase. I am now the owner of the Hudson dreadnought guitar. I chose this model because of the very favorable reviews that it, and all the rest of your instruments have received, and the fact it is one of your higher end guitars.I have played it now for a total of a few hours and it is a very nice sounding guitar with smooth action and plays well all the way up the neck. It has a very clear voice, honestly, however, I was expecting more projection and presence. The workmanship is quite good and it is a very nice looking instrument. The tail piece is cut very sharp on the corners and in my opinion may need some work to relieve these sharp edges. I hope to get many years of enjoyment from this guitar, but I wonder, if I had been given the opportunity to compare this guitar to your other models before hand, would I have still bought the Hudson or a lesser expensive model with basically the same sound.

I was looking for an affordable solution to a high-quality sounding guitar. When I received my Hudson, the guitar was already set up and sounded great. I've had this guitar for three weeks so far and for $645, I can't image you can get much better than this – not to mention the high-quality tolex carrying case. Thanks Orangewood!